Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice

The order sets a fixed succession line within the Department of Justice for when the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, and any officials previously designated under federal law are all unavailable. In that circumstance, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York acts first, followed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, then Northern District of Illinois, then District of Hawaii. It revokes Executive Order 13787 from March 2017, which had established a different DOJ succession order.

The order includes standard limiting provisions: no individual already serving in an acting capacity in one of those offices may use this order to ascend further, and only individuals otherwise eligible under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act may serve. The President retains discretion to depart from this succession line when designating an acting Attorney General.

The four named U.S. Attorneys — for the Southern District of New York, District of Arizona, Northern District of Illinois, and District of Hawaii — whose acting-Attorney General responsibilities are now formally ranked. DOJ staff and other federal agencies are affected during any leadership transition requiring the chain to activate.

If the Attorney General and the top two statutory deputies are simultaneously unavailable, there is now a clear, legally grounded line of authority for who runs the Department of Justice — avoiding ambiguity about who can authorize enforcement actions, sign legal briefs, or direct federal law enforcement priorities.